So I don't worry about where he's gonna fit. I like his bat and his potential, but for all we know he stays at 3rd and we trade Seager for a kings ransom in the offseason after 2016. Or we trade DJ. They may play DJ some at 1B but if he's trade bait they'll want to prove he can play 3rd. I don't expect a full-time shift to 1B immediately for him, in part because HE wants to play third, so we'll let him either fail or succeed there for a while before wondering how he'll fit into our needs.
IMO the fastest track for DJ is the Goldschmidt track: half-a-season to start in a short-season league, then at least a year and a half to avoid Super Two his last season before coming up. If he's here before July 2015 it'll be both amazing and probably a mistake (as I think promoting Zunino this quickly has been). I'm thinking Spring or Summer 2016, personally, and that's if it works out.
Ji-Man Choi is much closer. He's already in AA, but I think he's at least a year, year and a half away. I want him to see tougher breaking pitches. The dude has had a ton of interruptions due to injury on his climb, so healthy seasons + building up his reference bank of pitches is a worthwhile thing. He reminds me so much of Choo at the plate, though, and not just because they're both Korean. Not tall but thick, hits a ton of doubles as a lefty, gets walked a lot and HBP pretty frequently too, and has 20 HR power. The difference: Choi is better against lefties than Choo is.
In 2016 I could see Ji-Man and DJ sharing DH and 1B, with Peterson able to play 3rd in a Youkilis sort of way. But I could also see both of them gone in trade. Smoak's last arb year is 2016 though, so trading him instead (especially with Boras as his agent) seems like the more prudent plan. But the kids gotta work out first.
~G
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